Chapter 19: Another Audition

The next day, Chen Nuo got up early, put on the suit he bought yesterday, and left the house on tiptoe.

He had agreed with Li Er to meet at her residential area entrance at 8:30 AM. Sure enough, at 8:25, a red Beetle stopped by the roadside, the passenger window slid down, and Li Er waved at him from the driver's seat.

After Chen Nuo got in the car, Li Er stepped on the gas and continued on the road.

"The clothes you chose are not bad. You didn't pick them, did you?" Li Er held the steering wheel with both hands, her eyes fixed on the road ahead, not even turning her head when speaking.

"Uh, um, a friend went with me."

Li Er didn't ask further, changed the subject, and said, "Today, not only the director but also the producer will be there. Don't be stage-frightened. I have already sent your photos and the movie clips you filmed before. If they weren't satisfied, they wouldn't have asked you to come over today."

"... What movie clips?"

"The movie you filmed with Zhang Yiyi. Zhang Yiyi edited some of your clips for me and agreed to let me show them to their people."

"Ah?"

"Zhang Yiyi didn't tell you?"

"... No."

"Ask him when you go back."

Li Er drove very slowly. After driving for more than half an hour, she stopped in the underground garage of an office building on the Second Ring Road.

Chen Kexin's film studio was on the 23rd floor, with a sign in traditional Chinese characters, the font designed with a sense of art. There was a front desk at the entrance, and a girl in her 20s with long hair was sitting inside, burying her head in writing something.

Li Er's high heels made a *deng-deng-deng* sound on the floor. The receptionist raised her head and stood up immediately.

Li Er walked over and nodded politely, asking, "Xiao Lin, has the director arrived? We agreed to meet at 10:00."

"Li Jiaoshou, the director has already arrived. I'll take you there right now."

Chen Nuo followed behind Li Er. The three walked to an office near the back. The girl knocked on the frosted glass door, then pushed it open and said, "Director, Li Jiaoshou is here."

"Li Jiaoshou, you're too kind, introducing us to excellent actors again." A middle-aged man with a slightly chubby build said in broken Hong Kong-accented Mandarin, stood up from behind the desk, and greeted them with a beaming smile.

He had shoulder-length hair parted in the middle. Unlike the ponytail Zhang Yiyi tied himself, his hair was clearly meticulously groomed, every strand tucked behind his ears without a single hair out of place. He wore black-rimmed glasses, his eyes not large but full of spirit.

Also standing up with him were two people on the sofa, a man and a woman. The man was about 50, his figure somewhat stout, with a round belly, wearing a gold watch on his wrist.

The other woman looked very delicate, not tall, and Chen Nuo recognized her. Her surname was Zhou.

"Hello Director, Hello Liu Zong, Hello Zhou Xun!" After Li Er shook hands with the two men, she hugged the delicate girl. "Long time no see. I didn't expect you to be the female lead in Director Chen's movie. The confidentiality work is done so well."

"Li Jiaoshou, long time no see. It's the director's confidentiality work that is done well, requiring all of us to keep our mouths shut at all times." Zhou Xun smiled, her eyebrows curved, very much like the appearance Chen Nuo had seen on TV in his previous life, but much younger than in his memory, deserving to be called "eyebrows like paintings, delicate and charming."

"Let me introduce him. This is the actor I recommended to you this time, Chen Nuo, 18 years old this year, currently taking classes in my training class."

"Hello Director, Hello Liu Zong, Hello Miss Zhou." Chen Nuo stood obediently behind Li Er, greeting them one by one.

On the way, Li Er had introduced the people he might meet today and also asked him to find Director Chen Kexin's classic works *Comrades: Almost a Love Story* and *He's a Woman, She's a Man* to watch several times over the past few days.

Only Zhou Xun's sudden appearance here was something Li Er hadn't anticipated. But it should be a good thing.

Li Er glanced at Chen Nuo and sat down with the others.

First, they chatted for a few sentences, complained about the weather in Beijing together, and reminisced about the golden age of Hong Kong cinema in the 90s. Finally, they reached a consensus: the future of Hong Kong cinema lies in the mainland, and sincere cooperation between filmmakers from both places is the general trend.

Then, Chen Kexin's gaze finally fell on Chen Nuo.

"Xiao Chen, you're only 18 this year, right?"

"Yes."

"What works have you filmed before?"

"I've only filmed one movie."

"Is it the one Li Jiaoshou sent us?"

"Yes."

"Hmm, can you sing?"

"A little."

"Come, sing one of your best songs for us to hear."

"Okay."

Chen Nuo stood up and sang straightforwardly. He was very confident in the song he had been practicing for the past two days because in the karaoke scoring system, he was a full 10 points higher than Yang Mi, who called herself the "God of Songs."

After singing *Legend of the Wolf*, Li Er's face was gloomy, Zhou Xun had a smile at the corners of her mouth, and Liu Zong and Chen Kexin looked at each other.

Li Er felt a little regretful. They had vocal classes in their training class; why didn't she think to ask the vocal teacher what level this Chen Nuo was at!?

It turned out that the "a little" in his mouth was really only a little, because he didn't know the other ninety-nine percent!

"Very poor, one could say tone-deaf." That chubby Liu Zong spoke up. "Li Jiaoshou, I will be blunt. What we are filming is the first musical movie in Chinese cinema. What we want to do is to set up a monument here, so that twenty or thirty years later, whenever someone mentions Chinese musical movies, they will still think of us. So we value details very much; we try not to dub if we can use the original sound, and this student Chen's singing voice is a bit far from our requirements."

Li Er was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled, two small dimples appearing on her slightly chubby face. "Liu Zong, what you say makes sense. Director, what do you say? Then shall we stop here today?"

Chen Kexin hesitated for a moment, looked at Li Er, laughed, and said, "How is that possible? Although we are filming a musical, it is still a movie after all, not a pure musical play; acting is still the most important thing. Since you're here, let's try acting. Then Miss Zhou Xun, sorry to trouble you to partner with this student Chen Nuo, okay? Sorry to trouble you."

"No problem, then what are we acting?" Zhou Xun nodded readily.

"Just improvise a segment. Zhou Xun, you still play a big star, and Chen Nuo, you play a reporter. You want to interview Zhou Xun, but Zhou Xun is very busy, and she doesn't want to pay attention to you. For the rest, you can improvise freely. OK?"

Zhou Xun and Chen Nuo both nodded.

"Then let's start! I'll clap the board for you, 3, 2, 1, action!"

Favorites, recommendations, reviews~ Anything is fine, it's all encouragement for me, thank you!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 20 =====